Alima Batchelor, Head of Policy at the PDA attended a national roundtable meeting in August 2020, which identified the plan’s themes and content. The PDA co-produced a Joint National Statement of Principles on Inclusive Pharmacy Professional Practice which was published in September and underpins the plan.
The aim of this roundtable meeting was to work collaboratively to develop and embed inclusive pharmacy professional practice into everyday care for patients and members of the public, in order to support the prevention of ill-health and address health inequalities within our diverse communities.
Chief pharmaceutical officer for England Dr Keith Ridge said: “We’d like pharmacy professionals across all sectors of healthcare to engage with and implement this plan and to make it a priority in whatever way works for you and your team, so becoming more inclusive becomes a part of everyday practice.
The distressing impact of health inequalities on people’s lives, which has been amplified since the onset of Covid-19, demonstrates we have a long way to go as professionals to genuinely understand, celebrate and make the most of the benefits of our diversity for improved healthcare provision.
It couldn’t be more important as we know that developing culturally sensitive healthcare is key to preventing ill-health, increasing vaccine uptake and protection from serious disease, and managing long-term conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and asthma, that are of higher prevalence in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and which increase the risk of someone being more adversely affected by Covid-19.”
Alison Jones, Director of Stakeholder Engagement at the PDA, said: “We welcome the opportunity to be part of the stakeholder group developing and implementing the inclusive pharmacy practice plan. With a membership of more than 32,000 pharmacists across the UK, the PDA is the largest representative membership body for pharmacists in the UK and continues to grow.
Working for equality is, and always has been, at the core of what the PDA does for our members both in individual casework support and collectively through our policy and campaigning. The PDA exists to be the voice of individual pharmacists and we recognise that more is needed to be done to ensure that the voice of stakeholders includes all parts of the profession regarding protected characteristics. Examples of where the PDA is involved in this work include tackling equal pay gaps on gender and ethnicity, ensuring people impacted by poor mental or physical health are given reasonable adjustments to give them an equal chance of success, and working harder to ensure proportionate representation of all protected characteristics in positions of influence.”
In April 2020, three new PDA Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Networks were launched to join NAWP (National Association of Women Pharmacists): the BAME Network (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Pharmacists’ Network), the Ability Network (Disabled Pharmacists’ Network) and the LGBT+ Network (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pharmacists’ Network), each of which now have active memberships which we are keen to engage into this work.
Equality across all types of protected characteristics is of the same importance and urgency, but we understand why this initiative has decided to begin with a focus on race equality. One of the key areas of focus for the inclusive pharmacy practice group is around vaccination uptake in BAME communities. The PDA’s current #GetVaccinated campaign is a great example of how the BAME Pharmacists’ Network is engaging the profession to encourage people from all communities to get vaccinated to ensure that they are protected from Covid-19.
We will be seeking to share the experiences of our members and programmes developed by the PDA EDI Networks with the inclusive pharmacy practice group to inform the plans as they develop.
Related links
- Read Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Blog here.
- Read more about the PDA’s #GetVaccinated campaign here.